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In the animal kingdom, camouflage is used for two purposes. The first of these is for safety as it enables animals to hide from predators. The second however is used by predators themselves. They use camouflage as a way to hide their approach from their prey when advancing on their next meal. From owls and spiders, to leopards and snakes, predators’ camouflage has evolved to a superior level and enabled their species to survive.

For quite some time now, marketers have felt confident in their use of social media as a marketing channel. LinkedIn is the network for professionals, Twitter follows closely behind, Facebook is more for personal use, and sites like Pinterest and Instagram are more for companies selling consumer products. This has been the case for quite some time, but sadly things are changing again.

As 2015 draws to a close, it’s a good time to reflect on the previous twelve months and think about your goals for the coming year. Did you stick to your New Year’s Resolutions? Did you achieve all you wanted to? Most importantly, were you naughty or nice? As we all know, Father Christmas only brings presents to little girls and boys who are nice, so be on your best behaviour all year or you might just end up with a lump of coal in your stocking.

Having been reduced to the seven that we know today by Pope Gregory late in the sixth century, the seven deadly sins are a list of rebellious tendencies that afflict fallen humanity. Committing any of these sins will result in eternal damnation (at least in a religious sense).

Thankfully then, we’re talking about the seven deadly sins from a B2B social media marketing viewpoint as opposed to a religious one. Committing any of these sins may not cause you to spend eternity in hell, but it will definitely affect your ability to achieve good engagement levels, increase your conversion rates and generate more high-quality leads and customers.

As B2B marketers, we are always on the lookout for the next ‘big thing’ that’s going to revolutionise our marketing communications and ultimately generate greater ROI. There are a variety of sources of inspiration, but as expected, the most common indicator of change is B2C marketing. By watching what our consumer-driven cousins are doing, it’s possible to identify the latest trends and developments in marketing. So what’s the next thing we need to be keeping an eye on?

Well, currently on Facebook, 50% of daily active users watch at least one video per day*, and Facebook’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, has said that he expects the social network's News Feed to be mostly video in 5 years*.

In today’s hectic culture where the phrase ‘time is money’ has almost replaced ‘goodbye’, Twitter’s provision of bite-sized information streaming between marketers, their peers, industry leaders, clients and leads has become an essential B2B marketing tool. It’s hard to imagine how people ever got on without it.

Etiquetterefers to a code of rules governing behaviour in society. As human beings we understand that good manners and etiquette are important for making good impressions on the people around us. For example, when we cough, we say ‘excuse me.’ When another person sneezes, we say ‘bless you,’ and when we knock into someone, we apologise. It’s just polite!

B2B salespeople are laser-focused on one thing… getting the sale. It’s unsurprising then that venturing into the realms of social selling can be a little daunting. Having heard names like Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg, salespeople are not complete strangers to the concept, many even have social media profiles; but using them to sell is a different story.

It’s the day before the 2014 FIFA World Cup kicks off (literally) and fans worldwide are eager to see just what formation and strategy each team uses to achieve their goals in this tournament. Similarly, B2B marketers are scouring the internet and constantly researching to achieve their own goals, a large part of which is using social media as a platform for B2B lead generation. In the case of marketing, common questions are along the lines of; how do I generate leads for my business using social media? Which networks and tactics should I be using to get the best results? How do I measure ROI?

If you’re a B2B marketer, keeping up to date with all the latest channels and social media networks is a job in itself. When you add to this every other task social media requires, such as posting, responding, measuring and optimising every platform you have a company presence on, time and resource becomes an issue. If you’re anything like me, having a handy shortcut to managing a social media network is always welcomed. That’s why I’ve put together this quick breakdown of Twitter lists and how they can help you manage your time on Twitter more effectively.

‘Nearly one-half (46%) of decision-makers say they now maintain a proﬁle on a social networking site and visit those sites at least once a month for business purposes’ - Forrester survey of business technology buyers.